Trends in the communications market have clearly defined the need for security for both commercial and military markets. As communications systems become more sophisticated with complex communication services and capabilities, it is important to keep information secure. One of the problems with secure equipment is interoperability between existing and future communications products. As new products are introduced and expected to become part of a larger secure communications system, the need for integrating legacy and emerging technology becomes imperative. Another problem with modern communications equipment is that secure hardware implementations are commonly difficult to design and expensive to manufacture. The manufacture of secure hardware often requires special semiconductor foundries which operate in an expensive, high security environment. Another problem with hardware implementations of secure communications equipment is the difficulty in reconfiguring the hardware. Typical hardware implementations are difficult to reconfigure and reprogram when equipment must perform various functional activities in a non-homogeneous communications environment.
Communications equipment implemented with software, however, are typically not considered as secure as hardware implementations because of the accessibility of the software. A typical problem with software implementations is that concurrent processing of multiple programs results in performance loss due to program swapping in a secure operating system.
Thus, what is needed are an improved cryptographic processing engine and method suitable for use in cryptographic systems. What is also needed are a cryptographic processing engine and method that provides interoperability between existing and emerging communications technologies. What is also needed is a cryptographic processing engine that does not include cryptographic programs during manufacture and can be fabricated in commercial semiconductor foundries thereby reducing costs. What is also needed is a cryptographic engine and method which are configurable and programmable and capable of performing various and changeable communications functions. What is further needed is a cryptographic engine and method which provide a high security software component with limited accessibility. What is also needed is a cryptographic engine and method which rapidly and securely switches programs and context for each data member processed.